


Forty Days a Year

by imamaryanne



Category: Baby-Sitters Club - Ann M. Martin
Genre: M/M, Mild Language, Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-10
Updated: 2012-10-10
Packaged: 2017-11-16 01:16:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,987
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/533874
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imamaryanne/pseuds/imamaryanne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jeff wants Byron to stop pushing him away.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Forty Days a Year

**Author's Note:**

> I'm slowly working on putting all my fics from various far-flung LJ communities on AO3. This one was written for Babysitters100.

“Shit,” Byron Pike cursed under his breath as he checked the dryer and his watch one last time. There were thirty minutes left on the timer and he had to leave for work in twenty minutes. He decided to check it right before he left and just hoped the shirt would be dry enough. Mrs. Pike’s announcement that because the triplets were leaving for college in three months, she was no longer responsible for their laundry hadn’t really come as a surprise (she’d done the same thing to Mallory the year before) but Byron wasn’t used to having to think about his clothes being cleaned. For his whole life they were always just cleaned and folded when he needed them to be. Now, he had to go wait tables at the Rosebud Café and he needed that horrible red polo shirt clean and dry, and of course he didn’t think about it until the last minute.

He trudged up the stairs wearing nothing but his khaki work pants (actually, Jordan’s khakis. Byron had forgotten to wash his own as well) to the kitchen, because another thing he hadn’t thought about was lunch. He opened the freezer and pulled out a TV Dinner of Salisbury steak, mashed potatoes and peas. He sighed, opened the box, threw it in the microwave. He got a tall glass of milk and silverware while he waited. The microwave beeped at the same time that the doorbell rang.

Byron pulled the TV Dinner out of the microwave and set it on the table before going to answer the door. He was only half surprised to see Jeff Schafer standing there. He’d known Jeff would come by eventually, though Byron had hoped he wouldn’t.

Byron let him in wordlessly, and walked back to the kitchen, Jeff following him closely.

“What’re you doing here?” Byron asked none too kindly once they got back to the kitchen.

“It’s summer break,” Jeff answered. “You knew I was going to come.”

“Didn’t you get my email? The one I sent you after spring break?” Byron had his back to Jeff, carefully peeling back the plastic cover of his lunch. The steam was released and hit Byron full in the face.

“Yeah, I got it. Didn’t you get my reply?” Jeff asked, sliding in to a seat directly across from Byron.

“Yeah, I got it. I just don’t quite get what you meant by ‘I reject everything you just wrote.’ That’s a shit reply.”

“It was a shit email you sent me.”

Byron shrugged. “I meant every word of it. So let me ask you again. What are you doing here?”

“I think you should change your mind about this summer.”

“Nope.” Byron shook his head. He began to eat his food. He looked at Jeff carefully, knowing full well that Jeff would be disgusted by the microwaved, processed red meat meal. “I’m not doing this again, Jeff.”

“Doing what again, exactly? I don’t really see what’s wrong with what we’ve been doing.”

Byron sighed and continued eating. “I’m not doing the whole four weeks during the summer, one week between Christmas and New Year’s and five days during spring break thing anymore. Five weeks and five days? Out of a whole year? That’s not a relationship, that’s just fucking around for forty days of the year. It’s been like that for two years and we’re both going to college and it’s just time to stop it already.”

“So you’re going to have a celibate summer?” Jeff smirked, though he lowered his voice as Byron glanced at the stairway nervously, “Is anyone else even home?”

Byron shrugged, “Vanessa. But chances are good she’s locked up in her room planning on how to get a little more black into her wardrobe and writing terrible poetry about her feelings.” Still he lowered his voice a little more. “I’m fine being celibate this summer.”

“Yeah, right.” Jeff said sarcastically. “Every time I come home it takes you about five seconds to find your way into my pants. How’re you fine with being celibate?”

“Because me being celibate means that in four weeks, when you go back to California, I don’t get hurt again. “

“Ah,” Jeff nodded. “So you’ll wear your celibacy like a shield.”

“This happens every time, Jeff. You come waltzing in to my life and I know you’re going to go waltzing back out of it, but every single time I fall for it. You come over with your smiles and your perfect kisses and that big back seat of your Impala. After last spring break, I just realized it’s not worth it to have all that and lose it after a week or four weeks.”

“You can’t just enjoy the next four weeks? It’s summer, By. It’s our last summer before college, this should be the best summer ever. I have plans, many involving the backseat of the Impala.”

“I had two really good half summers last year and the year before. Those good halves were followed by halves that really sucked because I missed you and I never got the impression that you even think about me when you’re gone. This has always been about more than fucking in the back seat to me, and I’m having trouble seeing that it is for you too.”

“That’s not true,” Jeff said quietly.

Byron acted like he hadn’t even heard him. “In my email, did I tell you about Finn Malloy?”

“Yes, you told me about Finn Malloy,” Jeff said snidely. “I don’t even know the guy, but he sounds like a douche.”

“Well, he’s not,” Byron assured Jeff, shoving the last of the peas into his mouth and chewing. Byron chugged the last of his milk and continued, “He’s really hot, and he’s a sophomore at Stoneybrook U. And you know what? He liked me and we had plans to spend days together last spring break. But then you came back and I buckled and I ditched Finn. I ditched him. Guys like me don’t get a chance with guys like Finn every day, you know? I ditched him for you and it was a huge mistake.”

Jeff shrugged uncomfortably. “I thought we had a great time last spring break.”

“We did,” Byron said simply. “But then you left to go back to California and I sat here in the closet in Stoneybrook Connecticut, without you or Finn, who was hurt and furious, by the way. Basically my only two connections to the big gay world weren’t there anymore. I never even slept with Finn, you know. We were going to have, like a real relationship based on things other than fucking. And I feel a little robbed of that.“

“I love our summers and Christmas breaks and spring breaks,” Jeff said, pleading quietly now. “You’re my only reason for coming back to Stoneybrook even as often as I do. It’s not about the sex to me either.”

“It’s not good for me, Jeff.” Byron felt his resolve starting to wane, as he’d known all along it probably would. The truth was he loved Jeff too much to really mean no to seeing him this summer, but he also loved him too much to accept that he couldn’t have him as a boyfriend all the time. “Jordan’s been dating Haley Braddock for over a year. You know, I want something like that.”

“I seem to remember about a year ago that I offered to call you boyfriend. I wanted the long-distance relationship.”

Byron snorted. “You’re out. I’m not. There’s a difference you know. It’s hard to keep a long-distance relationship secret when your parents only give you so many cell phone minutes a month.” Byron bit his lip. “We talked about that, too. My need to stay in the closet for now.”

“I wouldn’t have pushed you to come out to anyone.” Byron didn’t answer, but started down the stairs to check on the dryer again. “Come on,” Jeff followed him to the basement. “I really need this summer thing to work out, especially now. I need you. I need to know that this breakup thing isn’t about me as a person. I need to know that it’s about you and your thing with the long distance thing.”

“Why?” Byron asked, pulling open the dryer and relieved to find his shirt warm and, except for a bit around the collar, dry.

“I hate the East Coast,” Jeff said plainly. Byron noticed a difference in his voice. Normally when Jeff talked about hating the East Coast, his voice got uncontrollably whiny. This time he was matter of fact.

“That’s why I never asked you to stay.” Byron said.

“And I appreciate that.” Jeff said. He grabbed Byron, still shirtless, by the shoulders and kissed him softly on the lips. “Seriously,” Jeff said, leaning his forehead to Byron’s, “It means everything to me that you never pushed the issue.”

Byron was softening, Jeff could tell. Byron reached up and began to stroke the back of Jeff’s neck, under his too-long hair, right in the dip where the top of his spine met his skull. It was Byron’s favorite spot on Jeff’s body. The skin was soft and pale, not sun-drenched and red like the rest of Jeff’s body. The hair, short and downy to the touch, was a white blond, much whiter than the rest of Jeff’s hair. Byron got no end of comfort from stroking that spot over and over.

“I love you,” Jeff said seriously.

Byron pulled back and smiled wryly. “No you don’t. You love that I’m an easy lay for you forty days out of the year.”

“No.” Jeff said vehemently. “I love you. And I do reject the email you sent me after spring break. I rejected it so hard I did something stupid.”

“What’d you do?”

Jeff took an envelope out of his pocket and shoved it in Byron’s hands. Byron looked at it and asked, “What’s this?”

Jeff moved to the couch and rubbed his hands against his face. “Look at it.”

Byron opened the envelope and pulled out a letter. “You got in to Rutgers?” Byron asked. Byron had gotten in to Rutgers, early decision, and thanks to his stellar grades and SATs, had also managed a nearly-full scholarship. His plan all along had been to apply to schools far from Stoneybrook and where Adam and Jordan would likely not want to go. This Rutgers thing had fallen in to his lap.

Jeff nodded and looked at Byron.

“Did you know about this during spring break?” Byron asked looking at the date on the letter.

Jeff nodded. “I’d already gotten in, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to go. I accepted their offer on the very last day they allowed.”

“What has your family said? Isn’t anyone curious about why you, who loves California more than life itself, would apply to college in Jersey?”

Jeff gave a sideways smile. “Dawn figured it out right away. I guess Mallory told her that you were going to Rutgers. Don’t worry, she’s good for keeping your secret. And no, everyone is really confused about this decision.”

Byron dropped both his shirt and the letter, which had been hanging limply by his sides. He took two big strides over to Jeff, tackled him on the couch and kissed him hard.

“I never would have been able to keep up the charade of not wanting to see you this summer anyway,” he admitted.

Jeff wrapped an arm around Byron and pulled him tighter to him. “I know,” He said happily. “Now we’ll be together most of the time now. It’ll be like summer all the time.” His smile reminded Byron briefly of the Cheshire cat.

At that moment, it was difficult for Byron to care that he was dangerously close to being late for work and that his clean work shirt was lying on the floor collecting wrinkles.


End file.
